Stretching
Before performing activities that use most or all of one’s
body for a period of time, I recommend spending about half an
hour stretching. The rules for stretching are simple: Fast and
painful is bad. Slow and steady is good. ** Remember to take twice
as long to exhale as you do to inhale.
Neck rolls – use a forward semi circle motion avoiding rolling
your neck back

Shoulders – hold your arms out and circle
front, back … use small circles and big ones

Blocking and Evasion
There are many different styles that use different ways of blocking,
parrying, or evading attacks. The best way to block an attack
is to avoid it all together, however that is not always possible.
Most of th blocks explained here are techniques I’ve learned
training in Kempo, which is a Karate derived from a need to use
Shaolin Kung Fu to denend one’s self in street fights against
other martial arts. I will start by explaining the fundamentals
of some basic blocks.

- Don’t over extend your self on a block, it’s probably
one of the easiest mistakes to make. Over extending or ‘reaching
to far’ in any direction could also be described as reaching
out for an attack that would not have hit you in the first place

- There is no need to ‘tense up’ when blocking. One
should be relaxed, focusing one’s physical energy on the
part of the body used to perform the block.

Using Your Hands

Our hands are our most useful tools. We don’t always think
of them as weapons, which is certainly a good thing, however even
an empty hand can be one of the most versatile and powerful weapons
in any arsenal. One good rule when striking is to eliminate any
excess movement. Note that a fake, or diversionary motion is not
necessarily excess movement. Speed and relaxation go hand in hand.
One should focus energy through one’s target.

Kicking

Kicking, while not always the best course of action to take
in combat, can produce some of the most devastating attacks in
all of martial arts. It may be hard to believe, but every kick
begins with the same general movement, a picking up of the leg
while keeping one’s knee straight in front of one’s
self in a neutral position, keeping the type of kick being produced
hidden from the opponent.

Aggressive techniques are those that involve either the attack,
or a response to an attack that uses mostly strikes to disable
one’s opponent.

Passive techniques are those that use another’s energy against
themselves, diverting it in another direction and throwing them
off balance.